Asbestos certified safety management system FAQs

This page provides answers for frequently asked questions relating to obtaining a certified safety management system under the Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016.

On this page:

A safety management system is an established set of processes to manage health and safety and maintain a high safety standard in the workplace. It should include accountabilities, policies and procedures. You can tailor the system to the size and complexity of your asbestos removal business.

The Health and Safety at Work (Asbestos) Regulations 2016 state that a certified safety management system is a system an auditor accredited by Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand (JAS-ANZ) or the National Association of Testing Authorities (Australia) (NATA) has certified as being compliant with:

Additionally, the system also must meet any requirements prescribed in a safe work instrument.

Class A licensed asbestos removalists need to have a certified safety management system in place by 4 April 2018. This requirement does not apply to others who carry out work involving asbestos.

Yes, your Class A licence will have a condition on it stating that you must provide evidence of your certified safety management system to us by 4 April 2018. We recognise that many licence holders will provide evidence of certification in the weeks leading up to 4 April 2018. Due to total volume of work expected, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to process your evidence in less than 20 working days. We therefore recommend that you provide evidence of certification to us no later than 7 March 2018.

You will need to develop safety processes and procedures for various aspects of your work as a licensed asbestos removalist that meet the requirements of either:

AS/NZS 4801:2001 :2001 or

OHSAS 18001.

You need to have your safety management system certified by an accredited certification body. Contact JAS-ANZ for a list of accredited certification bodies that can carry out an audit of your safety management system to ensure it meets the requirements of the standard. Certification bodies may also be referred to as auditor or assessment bodies.

We recommend using OHSAS 18001. However, you can also use AS/NZS 4801:2001 (Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems).

We have also worked with JAS-ANZ and industry to produce a new accreditation scheme specifically for Class A removalists, based on ISO18001. It is more specific to the work of Class A asbestos removalists, and provides you with greater assurance that your safety management system is fit-for-purpose.

No, but we recommend that you do. We developed our scheme in conjunction with industry, and we have tailored it to the work of Class A asbestos removalists. The cost should be the same regardless of whether you obtain certification under the asbestos specific scheme or the generic scheme. This is because either way the certification body is required to take into account the specific requirements under the asbestos regulations for your safety management system.

Our scheme makes things easier for the certification body, and we are working with JAS-ANZ to ensure that assessment bodies carry out their work properly. We are unable to provide you with a similar assurance with regard to the generic scheme.

In October 2016 we called on industry to express their interest in participating. We then nominated suitably qualified, experienced representatives to form a Technical Committee, which advised the development process. All members have an equal say on the contents of documentation the Technical Committee produces.

The committee includes representatives from:

JAS-ANZ

WorkSafe New Zealand

Class A asbestos removal licence holders

New Zealand Demolition and Asbestos Association

Professional Fire Fighters Union

New Zealand Institute of Safety Management

JAS-ANZ accredited certification bodies

Consultants with an interest in asbestos removal

You should contact a representative or JAS-ANZ if you want further information.

The list below gives you a flavour of what an SMS could include:

An over-arching commitment by the manager and staff to focus and improve upon safety and health

Clear activity schedules and improvement plans

Good documentation and records-keeping

Clear allocation of responsibility to staff and managers

Strong processes to cover every task performed by employees and managers

Employee participation in every level of safety management

Risk identification and management

Understanding and monitoring of environmental issues which could impact upon the health of employees

This depends on your circumstances, as the system should scale to the size of your organisation, and the accreditation scheme you choose. For further advice, we recommend discussing your needs directly with an accredited certification body(external link).

It will also depend on what processes and systems you already have as well as resources to complete any required work. If you have good processes or systems in place then the time taken to produce and ensure they meet the requirements of OHSAS 18001 or AS/NZS 4801:2001 will be quicker than starting from scratch.

We anticipate that it should take no longer than six months to get all systems and processes in place for certification if you are starting from scratch.

We understand that some auditing bodies may not be taking on new clients.

Below is a list of certified auditing bodies that we believe are taking on clients and may be providing services regionally.

We do not endorse any of these providers and provide this list for information purposes only. Please do your research to ensure that a provider will meet your needs. If there are providers that are not on this list that should be, please let us know, and we’ll add them.

You need to provide us with evidence that your safety management system is certified. Send a copy of your certificate to the asbestos licensing team at asbestos@worksafe.govt.nz.

We recognise that many licence holders will provide evidence of certification in the weeks leading up to 4 April 2018. Due to total volume of work expected, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to process your evidence in less than 20 working days. We therefore recommend that you provide evidence of certification to us no later than 7 March 2018.

We will suspend your Class A asbestos removal licence if you fail to provide evidence that your safety management system is certified. We will give you an opportunity to submit evidence, however, failure to do so will result in the cancellation of your licence.

In general after the initial audit there will be a supervision audit each year for the first two years, and then a re-assessment audit on the third year. However, the frequency of audits depends on the scheme under which you choose to have your safety management system certified, as well as how well your organisation implements the management system it has developed. Work is still ongoing in this area and if you have any comments then please direct these to the relevant member of the Technical Committee.

We administer the asbestos licensing system, including checking that license holders and applicants meet all the legal requirements ie. we need evidence that you have a certified safety management system.

Our broad role is to undertake the following:

educate and engage workplaces about health and safety, hazardous substances and energy safety

work with other agencies and parties to improve workplace health and safety systems

provide information, codes, and guidance tools for workers and employers

undertake workplace assessments and investigations to improve health and safety at work

monitor and enforce compliance with the law, and

prosecute people for serious workplace health and safety failures.

Your certification body will keep a copy of the audit. They may provide a copy to JAS-ANZ or us. If a certification body denies, suspends, or withdraws the certification of your safety management system then you must notify us of this within 14 days.

Licensed class A asbestos removalist must have a certified safety management system in place. If your certification is suspended or withdrawn, you must notify WorkSafe within 14 days. WorkSafe may decide to suspend or cancel your licence. Before we make a decision, and after notifying you that we are proposing to suspend or cancel your licence, we generally give you 28 days to make a submission to us. This also gives you an opportunity to rectify the situation.

We will accept evidence of your certified safety management system if the certification is by a certification body accredited by JAS-ANZ for AS/NZS 4801:2001 or OHSAS 18001.

JAZ-ANZ is the body that is responsible for ensuring consistency across the auditing bodies. This means that no matter which certified audit body you use they will have a common understanding and approach to the standards that they are auditing against.